Jennifer Abraham
The economic problem the current administration faces because of the monolithic structure of the economy is near overwhelming. Oil, which provides 90 per cent of government revenue, employs just about 10 per cent of its employable population. There is an urgent need for diversification. It was precariously okay to relax when oil prices soared in the international market, when only a few nations had oil resources, when America so enormously patronised Nigeria’s light crude, when the oil producing regions were yet uninformed about the dubious proceeds of militancy. All that has since changed.
Today’s reality is that oil prices have plummeted, many more countries – at least two thirds of the African continent, have discovered oil and erstwhile customers now compete with Nigeria in the international market and her biggest buyer, America is presently the world’s second largest seller of crude after Saudi Arabia. Incongruously, oil was tapped from the Niger Delta without due recompense paid to host communities and like America’s big black brother who ate in the kitchen, served the Whiteman until he attained enough stature to demand his rights, the Niger Delta is now wide awake. Their barefooted children have gone to school and have decided that they are no more walkovers. What was considered a collective wealth is now seriously contested by those who feel entitled to it. Nigeria cannot have it so easy again.
It is now time for strategic thinking because at the rate things are going, the Federal Government may not be able to keep sharing ‘revenue’ for indolent states and local governments for too long. You cannot give what you do not have and while time is being wasted, our vey fertile human resources both employed and unemployed are actively reproducing. How would we manage our offspring if we do not create industry, or are we merely breeding a troop of idlers who would be available for every evil purpose? The solution is in opening up and deepening state and LG economies, such that more people can participate in diverse value chains that create wealth. Then the businesses so spawned can pay their taxes. The states and local governments, including those in the Niger Delta region must now begin to take ownership of their liabilities (abandoned factories and large scale farms, vast lands, rivers, unemployed human resources, underfunded government institutions and agencies and their dusty research findings) and reengineer them for productivity.
Governors and heads of local governments need to take a good look at their spheres of influence and identify areas where they have comparative advantage and build them up to competitive levels. This is only possible through creation of processing industries that would extend the value chains that available natural resources can offer. For example, a state that is rich in agricultural products like tomatoes, fish, and livestock should look beyond the production of primary goods and consider how the products can be treated and packaged for longer shelf life and marked-up pricing. Such states would need to seek information on available local technology for storage, processing, canning and other competitive forms of packaging. This ensures that harvests are properly harnessed, shelf lives of products are extended and better pricing attracted especially through exports. All these would need the deployment of human resources to achieve. This is a genuine effort at job creation.
An amazing find on one of my trips to FIIRO is the ongoing research in the domestication of technologies for the production of natural fibres using waste materials like pineapple blades, banana stumps, which is usually a nuisance after the fruits have been harvested. The scientist leading the work, Dr. Chika Ezeanyanaso explained that it is a thriving industry in India and Ethiopia. I went online for verification and discovered that the production of natural fibres is not capital intensive. In the Philippines, exotic, paper-thin ‘pina’ cloth is a high end material woven from pineapple fibre that sells for as much as $61 (N12, 136.99 using official exchange rate of N198.968/dollar as at 6/2/2016) per meter which takes about a month to weave and some of their top clients include Kalvin Klein.Instead of travelling abroad at the expense of already overburdened finances, our leaders could begin to undertake economic missions to our research institutes and research departments of tertiary institutions in their environs to seek out dust up research findings on processing techniques and technologies for local raw materials. The Agencies and the tertiary institutions in the spirit of ‘Town and Gown’ partnership, can also undertake such missions, using every possible medium to make their voices heard. Dr. Gloria Elemo and her team at the Federal Institute of Industrial Research, Oshodi, are making admirable strides in this regard that could serve as a model of approach for peer agencies. Its Extension and Linkage Directorate headed by Dr. Dele Oyekun now regularly invites youth groups, NGOs, government departments and even international agencies and institutions to market their commercial sable research findings. This is the concerted effort that is needed to industrialise Nigeria and achieve economic diversification. States and Local Governments can initiate and even sponsor enlightenment missions to such science-based agencies and departments of tertiary institutions in their environments to shop for ideas on how to utilise local raw materials to create industry using local technologies.